Ruling on remand reserved, Odisha train arson accused sent to jail

The Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) here today kept its ruling reserved on a fresh plea of Government Railway Police (GRP) to take the prime accused in the Puri Railway Station arson case on a 10-day remand.

The prime accused– Ramchandran Subhas—was sent to Puri District Jail after the completion of the six-day remand today.

The Puri Railway Station arson case accused was today produced before the Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) court here.

The investigating officials today sought further remand of the accused. The court has reserved its verdict on allowing the officials to take the accused on further remand for interrogation.

Public prosecutor Satyajit Sadangi said, “The investigating officer (IO) had applied for a 10-day remand. The court has reserved its verdict and we would come to know about it in 2-3 days. As it is a heinous crime, it takes more time for investigation. Therefore, more time should be given to IO for better investigation. There might be terror angle to it. The IO might have sniffed something that’s the reason why he moved court for further remand.”

The investigating officials, however, refused to divulge any details on the progress of the investigation.

“At this point of time, we cannot comment anything on this as the investigation is open. We expect to find some information after further investigation,” said Puri GRP DSP, Devendra Kumar Das.

The main accused – Ramchandran Subhas—allegedly involved in the series of train burning incident in the Pilgrim Town on November 3 was taken on remand by the Government Railway Police (GRP).

The Puri SDJM court on Saturday had allowed the railway police to conduct polygraph test on Subhas. However, it could not be done yesterday as it being Sunday and the institute remains closed.

During the remand period, Subhas was interrogated by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar. He was brought to Bhubaneswar on Friday from where he was taken to Mancheswar GRP police station. The officials subjected him to marathon interrogation to extract details from him.

Notably, the services of three Tamil interpreters were also availed by the investigating officials as Subhas only understands Tamil.

Subhas was arrested on November 12 for allegedly fire to train bogies of three trains which engulfed five coaches.